Steely Dan's Donald Fagen Talks Latest Tour, Chances of a New Studio Album

Photo: Danny Clinch -- Steely Dan launches its latest tour, the oddly-titled Mood Swings: Eight Miles to Pancake Day trek, tonight in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The outing will wind its way around North America before finishing up with a seven-show engagement at New York City's Beacon Theatre that runs from September 30 through October 8.

The Beacon concerts and a few other shows during the tour will be special themed events that, on select nights, will see the jazz-rock legends performing one of their classics albums -- Aja, The Royal Scam or Gaucho -- in its entirety. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, singer/keyboardist Donald Fagen reveals that the group might surprise audiences by adding another of its albums into the mix.

Fagen explains that after noticing that Steely Dan has been rehearsing "all the songs from [1973's] Countdown to Ecstasy album, the band is thinking about bringing "the whole album out during some of the shows." He adds, "We'll probably just wind up doing it randomly."

With regard to compiling a general set list for the trek, Donald points out, "We know there are certain songs the audience is gonna charge the stage if we don't do, certain hits and other popular tunes. Then maybe a third of the show we get to play around with, adding things we haven't done or some really obscure thing we never recorded."

He admits that he and co-Steely Dan leader Walter Becker get tired of performing some of the band's biggest hits, including "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and "Reeling in the Years," but continue to perform them in concert.

Meanwhile, Fagen also discusses that possibility of Steely Dan recording a new studio album.

"[Becker and I have] been talking," he tells Rolling Stone. "We always talk about it on airplane rides. Usually we forget what we talked about before we do anything about it. But yeah, we actually had a conversation about it the other day, so who knows?"